Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Works for Chamber Orchestra (Cosmopolitan Mendelssohn)

Featuring

Peter Bruns
Mendelssohn Kammerorchester Leipzig
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy
Hector Berlioz
Robert Volkmann
Gaetano Donizetti

Niels Wilhelm Gade

Did you know?

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Interpretation

Performing a string quartet with a string orchestra, as done with Donizetti's String Quartet No. 9 on this album, transforms chamber music from an intimate setting into a public concert hall experience, broadening the sound spectrum with added double basses.

Performer Biography

Peter Bruns' recording of Bach's six Cello Suites was described by the American journal Early Music Review as "one of the best recordings… possibly even of the century… Of the … performances of recent years, it comes closest to Pablo Casals'."

Composer Biography

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, a composer, pianist, and conductor, undertook an extensive educational journey, known as the Grand Tour, across Europe between 1829 and 1833.

Recording & Production

This album was recorded in September 2017 at the MDR-Kubus in Leipzig, Germany.

Composition History

Mendelssohn's Symphony Movement in C minor is the last of his early symphonies for string orchestra, composed between the ages of twelve and fourteen, and served as a preparatory exercise for his First Symphony, Op. 11.

Performer Biography

Peter Bruns, the artistic director and solo cellist for this album, plays a cello made in 1730 by Carlo Tononi Bolognese that once belonged to the legendary cellist Pablo Casals.

Compositional Technique

Gaetano Donizetti, primarily an opera composer, created at least 18 string quartets, which are considered the most important Italian contributions to this genre in the 19th century.